We added Zend_Application
to Zend Framework starting in version 1.8.0. The intent behind the component
was to formalize the application bootstrapping process, and provide a
simplified, configuration-driven mechanism for it.
Zend_Application works in conjunction with
Zend_Application_Bootstrap, which, as you might guess from its
name, is what really does the bulk of the work for bootstrapping your
application. It allows you to utilize plugin bootstrap resources, or define
local bootstrap resources as class methods. The former allow for
re-usability, and the latter for application-specific initialization and
configuration.
Additionally, Zend_Application_Bootstrap provides for
dependency tracking (i.e., if one resource depends on another, you can
ensure that that other resource will be executed first), and acts as a
repository for initialized resources. This means that once a resource has
been bootstrapped, you can retrieve it later from the bootstrap itself.
